New Era at EMCF

There was lots to do on a rainy Thursday at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility at Management & Training Corporation officially got the keys from GEO Group.

New Warden Frank Shaw comes to EMCF with three decades of experience in the Illinois Corrections Department.

"We've walked through the facility, and seen how the security procedures are," says Shaw, "and what we want to do is we want to make this a safe and secure environment, we want to the community to feel good about the fact that no inmates are going to leave this facility unless they discharge."

Shaw says there has been some confusion as new staff learn the ropes at the prison.

The Warden also addressed the prison population at EMCF, he says that he wants to make sure it remains a mental health facility, and he aims to look at the prison population as it stands right now.

Concerns were raised several years ago when inmates from Parchman were transferred to EMCF.

One time EMCF Authority President Bill Ready told us in April he believes that move led to many of the current issues at the facility.

"I certainly can't speak as to what happened back then in terms of what inmate population was brought into the facility," says Shaw, "our goal is that this is going to be a mental health type facility."

"We are going to try to reclassify every inmate we have so we know what kind of inmates we have in this population, and then we'll make changes as we have to."

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